i’m gonna be honest i thought it was gonna be spider man teaching me about Muhammad, but this is wonderful.

Isn't it interesting how careful this historians are about even an implied criticism of Islam, yet no other religion gets this same respect.

The Arab proverb, “ not being able to know something is no proof it doesn’t exist,” is a ridiculous piece of philosophy. By that logic you can claim absolutely anything.

ITS EASIER TO DECEIVE THE MASSES THAN IT IS TO CONVINCE THE MASSES THAT THEY HAVE BEEN DECEIVED.

Am i the only one who thought Tom Holland from Spiderman was somehow involve in the documentary?

I'm not sure what I expected from this at the start, but what I found was that spending over an hour telling someone that there is no evidence for something can be pretty boring.

Change of the qibla (Arabic: تحويل القبلة) is the event in which the qibla of Muslims (direction of performing some rituals) was redirected from al-Aqsa mosque, in Bayt al-Maqids (Jerusalem), to the Ka'ba (in Mecca). The event occurred in Rajab, 2/January, 624, after the revelation of al-Qibla Verse. According to the majority of historiographers, the change of qibla occurred in Masjid al-Qiblatayn in Medina in the middle of the noon prayer. One interesting point about the redirection of the qibla is how people turned in the middle of a congregational prayer to over 160 degrees.

Stories that never happened can be infinitely more powerful than stories that did.

They were only allowed to show this once in the UK, because of massive protests from Muslims. So I can only recommend "In the Shadow of the Sword" by Tom Holland, that is the book he basically are "advertising" for here, to get the full story of what he gives the "headlines" for here. (I've read it probably 4-5 times!)

ITS NOT THE EYES THAT IS BLIND BUT THE HEARTS

This was an eye opener meaning that we generally have to dig for answers if we are expected to accept and believe in anything. I found this video to be good , objective. But there is still a long way to go in looking for answers and I pray that we as humans get at least some of those answers, personally I don’t judge which is right or wrong, only to be able to find peace for at least myself. This video might or might not be it but it’s good to know there are efforts being made .

Maybe he should look in some of the Ancient Chinese accounts and writings in their ancient history. The Chinese were trading in that area and even with the Romans through various tribal Merchants including Arabs and desert peoples etc from very Ancient times. The Chinese may have some interesting writings about these Arabs and early Islam peoples/religions/practices. Chinese were always guarding their border lands against invaders, they had many tribal vassal states as well so the Chinese were great historians and record keepers, they are sure to have accounts worth reviewing.

Dear Mr. Holland , i will try to be just and subjective and I will ask some questions: you made it to the desert of Wadi Rum in Jordan 🇯🇴 met some bedouins and heard from them about Islam, but never met some well known scholars in Jordan like Dr. Zaghlol AlNajjar , Dr. Mohammad Nouh and many others who would definitely enlighten you about your inquiries, why? One hour and 11 minutes I saw 4 people talking about Mohammad and kept saying “I do not know” as an answer for most of your questions and comments, are you convinced that you interviewed the right people? What are you trying to tell us here? Do you think that this work had been produced based on a proper scientific research? I need answers please!!!!

In a thousand years, if we are still here, people will think of us as absolute wack jobs.

The cinematography is just pure transcendence

I read Holland's book, "Dominion"....what an incredible book.

Man makes his own stories and history for everything else, there is a mystery.

I'm a 62yo Chinese Malaysian teacher. I'm not sure if I gained much from what was intended by Tom. Maybe he's trying to convey the "truth" that there's no historical records or sources. Even historical records of other histories are basically premised on presumptions constructed from sources that are "flawed". My sense is that all history is based on presumptions made from the little information unearthed.

What you can say is that his capacity to memorize and to keep the verses in chronological gives an equivalence of his brain capacity

they knew what they were doing including Tom Holland in the title😂

After a while in I couldn’t wait to read the comments, wasn’t disappointed

Thank you for posting I enjoyed watching it love seeing all the places you filmed at loved the old film footage

I pray for Peace….and the Truth to be known to all! Surely, Truth will set you free! Thanks for the film.

So much internal repetition. Seems each scene and clip is reused three or four or more times in the course of the flick. Could be edited down to 20 min. or less with no loss of content.

I can`t believe that Tom hasn`t mentioned Medina throughout this documentary, even though all of the Korans surahs are divided into the Meccan(surahs that were revealed anytime before the migration or the Hijra) and the Medinan suras, that are those supposed revelations that occurred after the migration to the city of that name. Mecca is(and was I suppose) barren, while Medina IS much greener, with fertile soil to grow fruits and vegetables.

We've all heard about it being the religion of peace! We also know actions speak louder than words!

Can someone share the soundtrack?

last 15 min was good example of how to be genuine and honorable, unbiased researcher/scholar

I think that it may have been Benjamin Franklin who said that religion in the hands of the good is a force for good, and in the hands of the evil it is a force for evil.

Laughing at ppl who thought this was the other TOM HOLLAND

5:33 we have the history of how. They placed the implement of the conversion on their flag.

There are two distinct periods in Quran. That is before conquer of Makka and after. The sura’s are also split in those two era. These are because both periods has distinct social parameters.

I am not a Muslim. However, studying extensively that religion and its history, it seems Dr. Holland tip toed around Islamic references that documented extensively the period he is examining. Our understanding would be very poor if we ignored early Christian historians and commentators. In the corpus of what is written by Muslim historians are also records of scientific knowledge, literature, philosophical ideas, theological analysis, etc. that enriched our world to this day. The views of the film are very limited to satisfy a certain audience not an academic one.

Radical islam is the snake..moderate Islam is the grass.

I like the ridley Scott sounding eerie when he questions things

As a boy, I belonged to the Boy Scouts. We had a a ritual that included a procedure similar to the Islamic praying for which we recited: I know my heart. I know my mind. I know that I ... stick up behind.

The story is hampered by the fact that Arabs of that day did not keep written records. That came only later. So of course there is not a paper trail, showing the circumstances of Islam's rise. But to then offer your opinion as definitive, that Islam arose from the Arab empire, is imposing your version on a story where there is no documentation, either way. It's historical malpractice, in other words. It's true that Mecca became the focus many years later. The niches in the very first mosques were pointed at Petra, according to another account. That gave birth to a theory that Mohammed was from there, being a trader, and Petra being a trading center. And Mecca has literally no archeology at all, which is strange, and difficult to reconcile with the Koran. But something united the Arabs before they could become an empire. This was no small thing - they were famous for inter-tribal wars. To this point, I haven't seen anything that would disprove the standard narrative - that it was the rise of this new religion, brought about by Mohammed. Only the lack of a paper trail, which you'd expect, given who the people were.

A mystical place in the desert would be a "mirage" to these early humans

What is the name of the song at the minute 8:00? Thank you

I always find it odd how Muslims believe the Bible is corrupted yet we don’t even know who wrote all the different quran versions. It comes from thousands of miles and centuries away. Who truly was Muhammad? Was there a Muhammad? Super interesting question.

the question that has been repeated since the beginning is " how do we know it was like that?" this question applies to all religions and all old historical events; we are sure of nothing unless we look carefully where we need to

This guy encountered some of the same things I encountered. In the end, islam betrayed itself to me as a parasitic system of philosophy that rests on two main pillars; political and religious. It feeds off what it has conquered. There's nothing remarkable about it worthy of our admiration.

It's not a Religion, it was one Army, slowly they converted a Religion

Music at 8:00 please?

"Stories that never happened; can be infinitely more powerful than stories that did!" 10/10

It was foretold that lshmael would be:“a wild ass among men; his hand shall be against every man, and every man’s hand against him. And he shall dwell over against all his brethren” (Genesis 16:12). Pray for his descendants

Any religion which is distributed by oral tradition has faults in it, nobody in the world says the other way aroun! Just because any holly book states this is the true religion doesn’t make it real if you cannot back up with evidence. Truth believing and Faith are all different.

The Bible is 66 books written by 40 different authors. It has a common message throughout. Mohammad was in Medinah for decades, it was part of a trade route, for many years Christians and Jews past through. He was heavily influenced by both. The Quran was written only by him, some of that influence is visble in his writings. The dead sea scrolls validate the Bible. The Quran has no such validation

Showing him walking and standing in the middle of the desert to give it more authenticity. What a joke.

kind of interesting but for the first ~20 minutes you don't say anything other than "there is no evidence and it is hard to find any". I ended up watching the rest on x1.5 speed

The author looked at the wrong places & sources

The fist Christian scholar who wrote about Islam was John of Damascus, his book was Fountain of Knowledge (born 670 AC), who confirms Muhammad as the founder of Islam I don’t this film at the end could conclude anything It was more entertaining than a historical research

I'm quite sure that the Emperor in Chang'an would have disputed the Emperor in Constantinople's claim to be Master of the Universe.

Even though I understand the majority of it, there are certain parts I don't understand, so please add English subtitles or turn on the automatic subtitle.

"For the first 100 years after the founding of "Islam", none of the Mosques "Qibla" faced towards "Mecca", for the first 120 years of Islamic history, none of the surrounding Nations knew about the existence of "Mecca", the word "Mecca" appears only once in the Quran, the most revered site was referred to as "Mashjd al Haram", "forbidden gathering place". The Al Aqsa Mosque "Qibla" does not point to "Mecca", the Khirbat al Mafja Mosque built 724 AD, 103 years after the founding of "Islam", its "Qibla" does not point to "Mecca", all Mosques built in first 100 years after founding of "Islam", pointed to Petra in Jordan... There is no record of "Muhammad" being "born in Mecca", the Quran describes "Gardens, Orchards, Fields" surrounding "Muhammad's birth place", soil tests have shown that there have never been fertile ground around "Mecca"...to the West, Northern Africa, Spain, the Umayyad-(traditionallists) built Mosques facing Petra, in Iraq, to the East, the Abbasid-(reformers) built Mosques facing "Mecca", 683 AD Ibn Zubayr destroyed the original "Kaaba" in Petra....." Reference: "The Sacred City". Timeline World History. Controversial, and absolutely worth considering....

Interesting research. Most people that are religious believe not because something is proven but because they feel it or have an inner conviction to follow it. Once you receive the gift of faith life takes on new meaning and somehow makes sense of life...in my experience.

Some say Tom is still searching for the answer

Cute that he ignored that Jerusalem fell during the 2nd Righteous Caliph, Umar ibn Khattab. (he jumped directly to Muawiyyah). He ignored also that Mecca has at least one Oasis. He also can explain how in Jupiter's name, Rome can let a center of resistance bloomed right in the center of Syam. BTW, the fertile crescent trumped canaan.

Profound.... so much to learn, process and understand. Nice balance in providing content and context for consideration. Excellent video for those reasons...well done sir.

A respectful and sensitive documentary on the topic of the historical origins of Islam. Thank you.

I hesitated reading the comment section, coz i know itll be a frenzy.

Do you have more research on it? Would be interesting to watch or read.

Whispering in a sacred cave with a $20 electric fan. Priceless.

Omg who is this singer in the background at the beginning? I'm transfixed and I must know

How come this documentary does not reveal the names of the “scholars” who provided their expert opinion? Was this deliberate so that their lives would not be at risk? Not knowing their credentials takes away some credibility to the whole documentary and all that they kept saying is “I don’t know”. I was expecting more substance honestly

A good quest for an answer to his questions. Appreciate his patience and persistence in keeping asking questions until he himself became confused about his questions. Good exercise, but it must be very expensive one. Congratulations. Finally you know what you don't know.

What is the name of the Ragtime piano piece played at kzfaq.info/get/bejne/oJ-DktuTz6-2l3k.html ?

Tom Holland is still Confused till Today 😂😮😅

Tom Holland develops on the lines of Patricia Crone, who decisively spoke on the muddled history of Mecca. This documentary based on Holland's work was aired only once by Channel4 and taken down after protests of fundamentalists. It's good to see this documentary back again on KZfaq.

dear all living people, always remember that we are mere dust in the universe...

To get your answers you must also study the Shia version of early Islamic history..

So, what's the final conclusion on this video?

Mr Hollands book "Sword of Islam" - I think it's called - covers the subject of this video in some depth and is very good.

You made me lose 1h watching this incorrect misleading and miss formatted version of the Islamic story! Like some statements that there is no evidence that the Profit Mohamed is from Mekka! Seriously! You need to start reading or google searching before travelling and making storylines.

The Austin School YT channel has the best most factual teachings on history

Wouldn’t be bad idea to name this video: “The age of the Cat”

There is a book. In which there is no doubt. A guidance for those who believe in the unseen.

This doc is about one person trying to find it's own doubt about a single person and one religion...its more about a journey of finding something...something that can give answer to his own opinion to the way he think and to the way how he realize...the real stories is at the end of this doc...it's more about himself rather than the history it's self...ask the right question and find the right path..and you may find what you're looking.

563 years at the time since you uploaded this video (first mistake?)...

Can anyone wrap their minds around the fact nobody would believe in someone coming out of a cave or off the top of a mountain and saying they spoke with an angel or god. It's delusional to say the least.

I have always been fascinated by the notions that Mt Sinai the Christian monastery is there, and I have a book called “Where Moses Walked”. Sinai is where God spoke. Sinai is where God stopped talking. Then I realized that guess what? If God is God? God is everywhere and don’t have to pay admission to be close to God. 1 Corinthians 3:16 “Do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?” So we don’t need to pay admission or go on a hadj or pilgrimage to the Holy Land to be close to God. God is everything, everywhere and in every believer.

waste of time watching when the historian doesnt even know how to find and check his sources.

I was always confused about their so-called need to claim Jerusalem as one of their holy cities. What happened to Mecca and Medina? The whole thing is incoherent.

any new videos out soon

"Muhammad rested under a tree"... (Not a tree to be seen in any direction...)

It would be great if it just remained untold..

Does the state of the building speak volumes?

no way our spiderman is now a historian, anyway best of luck for your new career bro

That big NO from the Professor humbled me so hard

He didn't include stamp of Muhammad (pbuh)? Letters sent to Roman and Persian empires?

4.50, wrong already. Istanbul was not the capital of the Roman empire, it was always Rome. But wen the Roman empire was divided into two, or better, collapsed, Istanbul was the - capital - of the Eastern Roman Empire. Since i am not allowed to post links,youtube considers this advertising, i just copied a few lines from WIKI. Following the collapse of the Western Roman Empire in the late 5th century, Constantinople remained the capital of the Eastern Roman Empire (also known as the Byzantine Empire; 330-1204 and 1261-1453), the Latin Empire (1204-1261), and the Ottoman Empire (1453-1922

Calling this "the untold story" is a stretch to say the least

In my living memory I have never known or met anyone in there right mind trying to immigrate to a Fascist, Communist or Muslim Country.. NEVER!

What were they first. I would love to hear full history

Very interesting. Love the tour of ancient places

THIS IS THE TOO-OFTEN-UNTOLD STORY It’s hard to believe that after 1,400 years anything remains to be said about Muhammad, Islam’s texts, and Muslim history. First, Muhammad said he got the Qur'ān privately from an angel in a cave. When he nevertheless found that he was making only a small impact in Mecca, in 622 he left for Yathrib with some fellow emigrants-Islam’s Hijrah-changed Yathrib’s name to Medina, and embarked on a different route to influence: war, which has remained Islam’s way ever since (though Muslims are certainly on a peace offensive now, apart from their war in Africa’s Sahel). “The Apostle...struck whoever turned his back to (God) until he came to Islam, willingly or grudgingly” (Islam’s first caliph, Abu Bakr, quoted in al-Tabari's History of the Prophets and Kings”). Grudgingly, huh? An interviewer in 2011 asked Ahmad Abu Quddum “So we are commanded to fight in order to spread the religion of Allah?” “Yes,” he said, “this is Islam’s way of spreading.” In his new home, Muhammad drew up a Constitution of Medina that made him the town’s leading citizen. Meanwhile he fought a series of battles, offensive and defensive, including 627’s Battle of the Trench-a siege, really-after which he personally beheaded at least 600 men and a woman of Medina’s Jewish Banu Qurayza tribe for not supporting him. “The Messenger of Allah...slaughtered 700 people-that is our Prophet and our religion” (KZfaq’s Abu Muhammad Ar Rusi). While in Medina, Muhammad sat in judgment of a man who’d killed his children’s mother for having slandered Muhammad, who found the man not guilty: “Oh be witness, no retaliation is payable for her blood” (Abu Dawud 5:4361, a canonical hadith). In early 630, Muhammad triumphantly returned to Mecca at the head of an army. He died there in June 632. So what do Islam’s texts say? They are extensive, but include Qur'ān 2:2, which discourages THINKING about the Qur'ān: “This is the Book about which there is no doubt.” Qur'ān 2:285 makes the point clearer still: “We hear and we obey.” And Qur'ān 5:101-02 adds “Do not put questions about things which if declared to you may trouble you....A people before you...became disbelievers on account of them.” So what is Muslims’ mandate? Qur'ān 2:251 says “And if it were not for Allah checking [some] people by means of others, the earth would have been corrupted....” (The brackets are in the translation.) Qur'ān 2:216 has Muhammad saying “Fighting is enjoined on you.” And Bukhari 4:52:311 has him saying “When you are called by the Muslim ruler for jihād fighting, you should go forth immediately.” And Muslims’ defense of Islam is to be brutal. Qur'ān 5:33 says “The punishment of those who wage war against Allah and His messenger and strive to make mischief in the land is only this, that they should be murdered or crucified or their hands and their feet should be cut off on opposite sides.” Qur'ān 8:67 says “It is not for a prophet to have captives [of war] until he inflicts a massacre [upon Allah's enemies] in the land” (brackets of which are in the translation), which makes of Muhammad a brutal man of war. Indeed, Qur'ān 9:3 says “Allah and His Apostle are free from liability to the idolaters.” Quickly then, Qur'ān 9:5 says “When the sacred months have passed away, then slay the idolaters wherever you find them, and take them captives and besiege them and lie in wait for them in every ambush,” a clear exhortation to premeditated murder. Finally, in 712, eighty years after Muhammad’s death, al-Hajjaj bin Yousef cited Qur'ān 47:4’s “O True believers, when you encounter the unbelievers, strike off their heads” to justify a slaughter of thousands in Brahmanabad, far up the Indus River valley. But does that typify Muslim history? Muslims invaded India, not the reverse; Persia, not the reverse; the Byzantine Empire (including Syria and Egypt), not the reverse; Africa’s Maghreb, not the reverse; Europe, not the reverse; and fought the Chinese on the Talas River, far from Arabia. “The Mohammedan Conquest of India is probably the bloodiest story in history,” wrote Will Durant (1885-1981). And in 636-37, Muslims besieged and took Jerusalem, to which they had no claim aside from arrogance. Moreover, to this very hour, no one has ever invaded Arabia’s Hejaz, which embraces both Mecca and Medina. Have Muslim jihādis misunderstood Islam? Ibn Khaldun (1332-1406), a Muslim sociologist admired in the West, once summarized Muslims’ obligations this way: “In the Muslim community, the holy war is a duty because of...[the obligation to] convert everyone to Islam either by persuasion or by force....The other groups did not have a universal mission, so the holy war was not a religious duty to them....All of them are unbelief. This is clearly stated in the noble Qur'an. [To] discuss or argue those things with them is not up to us. It is [for them to choose among] conversion to Islam, payment of the poll tax [jizya], or death.” Abul A'la Maududi (1903-1979) wrote "The goal of Islam is to rule the entire world and submit all of mankind to the faith of Islam. Any nation or power in this world that tries to get in the way of that goal, Islam will fight and destroy....The believers [are] under an obligation to do their utmost to dislodge them from political power and make them live in subservience to the Islamic way of life." And in 2015, Abu Bakar Bashir said “If the West wants to have peace, then they must accept Islamic rule.” That, then, is what the world is up against and what much of the world is loath to face. It’s also what humanity MUST face if it’s to survive. “Avoid novelties, for every novelty is an innovation, and every innovation is an error” (Muhammad, quoted at Abu Dawud 3:4590).

Why did you check the different Coraans? One is in Istambul, but check the others, Mekka was not on the oldest maps.

When Muslims conquered Persia they let them rule the empire, minting coins was done by the Persians and Arabs did not know how to make them. That's why they have no coins. Also we know that glorifying Muhammad and making paintings was forbidden so a coin with his name is probably haram. The more I watch the more I see that the researcher doesn't have enough knowledge about Islam.

Yeh, Having been in the hotel industry, I have had the fortune of working with many, many persons from many, many culture’s, countries and ethnicities. Retired now for ten years, I regularly golf with Asian golf partners from Taiwan, Korea and those that actually lived in China and owned a factory in China. I very much enjoy hearing about their experiences, opinions, cultures and families. In “79”, I had many Iranian young men work for me. They needed to work due to assets being frozen and not being able to get back to Iran. 45 years later, I know for a fact some of these men have raised families in the U.S. and are as “Americanizes” as can be. Although I recognize there are many Muslims in the U.S., they DO NOT want to over-assimilate or have there families, descendants effected by the American culture. My neighbor is one. He will not shake hands with someone such as I. I have encountered this many times interacting with persons of that culture. So- although in our country and our culture, their religion does not allow to integrate. This is segregation. Just saying. Definitely now a religion of love in my humble opinion.

"Maybe if I make a documentary saying nice things about islam they won't kill me."